I bought myself my first real bike (Conway GRV 600) three weeks ago and was pretty happy with it. My GF decided she wants one too and got herself a Canyon Endurance Bike (cheaper than mine but same Tiagra group). Upon trying out her shifting I noticed that hers is extremely easy to use whereas on mine I have to apply quite a lot of force and by quite I mean like a ton more. With hers it's possible to go like click click click with an easy hand move, whereas on mine I sometimes struggle to get even one gear up at a time. When I originally got the bike I didn't know that it was not supposed to be like that, however now that I have something to compare, the differences are striking.
Some facts :
- The bike was new but sold to me with a 20% discount on the retail price
- I have ridden for around 400km since I got it, almost exclusively on roads and always in the dry - so I think my cables should be fine
- shifting up the cassette with the rear derrailer (that is into easier gears) is what requires a lot of force, going down the cassette is really easy and fast on both bikes
Any suggestions what this could be caused by? Is it due to different cable routing, or might it be that the bike has been sitting too long somewhere and the tension on the cables is bad?